Afro-Peruvians and their music and dance

And more about world music and dance, or more specifically, Afro-Peruvian music and dance:

Afro-Peruvians. THEIR music and dance are only a couple of centuries old--very young, when you compare it to the bharatanatyam of southern India.  However, the community itself is only a couple of centuries old, and their music and dance tell us a lot about their history and the horrendous conditions that the community had to endure.

Afro-Peruvians, or Peruvians of African descent, are the descendants of people kidnapped in Africa and brought cross the ocean as slaves to work the plantations of the Spaniards. Most came from West African, but others from as far away as Angola and other countries far to the east.

Photo courtesy el Comercio (Lima, Peru) from Caitro Soto:  el Duende...

Their music and dance developed in part as a way of telling of their condition, partly as a way of making fun of the whites who were dominating and mistreating them (and about whom they could not, without great risk, actually SAY anything negative), and partly because in most parts of Africa, dance was a way of speaking to the deities and spirits (especially mother Earth).

Then, let's get real, they also made music and danced just in order to have fun.

Having fun dancing!  Photo:  courtesy el Comercio (Lima, Peru)

Africans were forbidden to play musical instruments by their white masters, so most Afro-Peruvian music uses percussion instruments that were developed from found materials, like wooden packing crates of the bones of animal. The cajón has become standardized from the crates and is now used in all kinds of music.

Yes, the Cubans also developed the cajón as a musical instrument. The two (Afro-Peruvian and Cuban) developed separately.

Lalo Izquierdo playing the cajon.

The star of our show about Afro-Peruvian music and dance, Lalo Izquierdo, is a master of the cajón...and master as well of the quijada de burro (donkey´s jawbone), the zapateado (Afro-Peruvian footwork), and is a very fine dancer as well as a folklorist.  He is accompanied by the great performance group, "de Rompe y Raja."

We will be releasing a DVD soon, A Zest for Life:  Afro-Peruvian Music & Dance, which is intended for a general public audience.  (We released an educational version last year.)  If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, hope to see you at the release party.

Map of Peru